A Guardsman's Tale
by Mr. Handsome
Summary: A Warhammer 40k story about one man amongst untold billions. Not to mention how he deals with a war against the forces of Chaos. Rated M for gore... flak armor isn't very durable.
1. 1 Intro

Vlenn Brodaack was an Imperial Guardsman. As with most Guardsmen, he had been conscripted into the righteous service of the Holy God-Emperor of Mankind at the age of seventeen. His homeworld had been an agri-world, devoted to the production of food. Not that it mattered to him anymore. A Guardsman never returns home, and the rich endless fields of grain and illustrious woodlands of his homeworld were forever separated from him by the eternal, dark voids of space.

After basic training Vlenn's regiment soon got its first assignment. The 2,000 men, alongside tanks, artillery pieces, and numerous support vehicles, were sent to a world besieged by mankind's oldest enemy: the Orks. The planetary defense forces were able to halt the foul xenos invaders but lacked the manpower necessary to push the numerous Orks off the planet. Sector Command had sent Vlenn's regiment, alongside others, to reinforce and support them.

The war had lasted 12 years. Slowly but surely the methodical tactics of the Guardsmen won out over the Ork's savagery. Imperial casualties were actually relatively low. Any Guardsman who was collected and careful had a decent chance at survival. The Ork attacks were unorganized and haphazard, usually resulting in them getting mowed down by Imperial auto-cannons, las-cannons, frag missiles, and lasfire long before they managed to reach the hand-to-hand combat they craved.

Likewise, the Ork defenses were ramshackle and unimpressive. Imperial artillery could reduce Ork forts to rubble within a matter of weeks, killing everything inside. Oftentimes, Ork vehicles or war machines would malfunction or explode due to the poor quality of their Mekboyz construction efforts as much as to the firepower of Imperial weapons. At the end of the twelfth year every Ork on the planet was dead, and Vlenn's regiment was up for re-assignment.

Vlenn was a quiet man. Determined, quick, steady. Twelve years of fighting had washed him clean of most other emotions. Anger, sorrow, happiness… there was no room for them. They were a dangerous distraction; men had died from them because they weren't paying attention to the battlefield around them. Find the enemy, take cover, aim, fire, repeat. That was what Vlenn focused on for twelve solid years. That is what he remembered. But even for all that, the hardened veteran felt a small sliver of fear in his heart when he heard where they were headed next….

A former Imperial world now under Chaos control. A large battle was currently being joined by Imperial and Chaos forces throughout the region, and this world was vital to the supply efforts of Chaos. Its loss would be devastating to them. However, it was not undefended. Massive cannons dotted its surface, designed to repulse enemy starships; and the Imperial fleet was spread too thin to try and overwhelm them by sheer force. This is where Vlenn's regiment came in.

They would land on the planet, the troop landers being small enough to evade fire from the ship-killer canons, and advance toward their city-sized target to destroy the generators that powered the cannon. Other battle groups would do the same to the other cannons at the same time, limiting the ability of the Chaos armies to reinforce one another. After the massive cannons were powerless a few Imperial ships would bombard the planet to destroy the Chaos-controlled space stations and manufacturing centers, cutting off the supplies to their larger war-effort. Simple, right?


	2. 2 Landing

Vlenn sat in his barracks room aboard the Imperial transport ship. Soon, anytime now, the alarm would sound and the attack would begin. He double-checked his equipment. Standard issue Imperial flak jacket and helmet; light armor that couldn't stop a las-beam… but better than nothing. Two fragmentation grenades, lasgun, bayonet, and four extra power cells fully charged around his belt. Not the most powerful equipment the Imperium of Man had to offer, but it would have to do.

The alarm sounded. Vlenn ran. Down corridor, down the stairs, down another corridor, all the way hearing the alarm wail, men shout, and phrases being screamed over the intercom.

"It is better to die for the Emperor than live for yourself!"

"There is no room for doubt, only the Emperor's righteous fury!"

"Spare no mercy to the traitor and the heretic!"

The intercoms yelled on. Vlenn could see Commissar Seck up ahead motioning to the men around him. "Move it onto the ships you dogs! To victory!"

Vlenn quickly made his way to his designated seat, secured his gun in its holder, and strapped himself in. He couldn't see who was on either side of him, the shoulder restraints blocked the view. A few moments later everyone was on board and the entry ramp closed. There was a sudden heavy *thud* as the lander was released from its clamps. Each soldier on board could feel the push and tug of acceleration as the ship moved out of the bay and into space.

The bulky ship began to shudder and shake as the batteries on the planet below opened fire. Nothing but luck would determine if the lander Vlenn is on would reach its destination or explode in the vacuum of space. A particularly harsh jolt ran through the ship's frame, jouncing Vlenn in his seat. A lander flying close to this one had been hit and destroyed; they had just flown through its shockwave.

There was a sudden decrease in motion and a solid *thump* as the lander reached its mark. The hatch ground open and men scrambled to get up and grab their weapons. Vlenn rushed alongside the mass of troops and headed towards the exit. Out of the corners of his eyes he saw other landers that had touched down; troops, tanks, artillery, and scout walkers unloading on either side of him in their hundreds. Vlenn cleared the ships with the rest of his squad. His sergeant ordered them to form up and begin marching. The invasion had begun.


	3. 3 Wasteland

The terrain was rocky and dry, with mounds of rubble strewn about the landscape. The sky was an angry mix of blues and reds, tainted by the Chaos energies that had come to infuse this section of space. It was not long before the Imperial Guard columns encountered resistance.

As Vlenn looked over the horizon he saw them coming. A sea of Chaos cultists, men whose minds and souls had been turned to the Ruinous Powers. He sergeant shouted at them to move into position to provide covering fire for a nearby las-cannon team. This was a standard battlefield tactic for Guardsmen. The light infantry protects the heavier cannons from enemy units while the cannons take care of the larger targets that light infantry can't handle. Though a las-cannon is relatively slow to fire its power yield is very high, able to melt through armor a lasgun couldn't. Vlenn's squad and several others move into position around the two man las-cannon team (one firing while the other monitors the weapon's battery charge).

Vlenn could see the enemy better now as they advanced. Cultists, mostly, low-ranking troops armed with las-pistols, rusty swords, or lasguns. No real armor, but they had numbers. He could also see a few Chaos tanks here and there, not really in any formation but still plenty dangerous. The effects of Chaos on one's mind tended to numb their wits but increase their battle lust. It was better to kill them before they got in close.

They were in range. Vlenn targeted a cultist, fired, and saw his enemy drop with a smoldering hole in his chest. He moved to take some cover behind a chest-high pile of rocks, knelt upright on one knee, and fired again. His first two shots missed but the third hit true to kill another of the Emperor's foes. The nearby las-cannon fired, blasting away at least five more. The enemy began to return fire, but most of their shots went wild as their battle-lust hindered their ability to concentrate. Some hit Vlenn's rocky cover but did no harm. He saw a Guardsman get hit in the stomach and go down but did not hesitate as he kept firing into the enemy.

The battle progressed. By and large the Guardsmen were able to keep Chaos at bay, the rough terrain slowing the Great Enemy's counter-attack. Vlenn downed two more cultists while the las-cannon team fired again. He saw another Guardsman fall. The man had been foolish enough not to seek cover, over-eager in his desire to slay the enemy. Still, the squads' steady, unyielding fire decimated any of the madmen that tried to advance on their position. Suddenly a Chaos tank, a corrupted Predator class, lumbered into view, supported by a large force of cultists. One of them carried an odd staff covered in human skulls and stood at the rear of the mob. The staff hurt to look at directly.

The Predator's main cannon fired and an explosion of dirt and rock kicked up to the left of the Imperial formation. Three Guardsmen were killed by shrapnel. Vlenn wasn't. He knew it was only a mixture of decent cover and luck that spared him.

Mostly luck.

The Chaos tank's two side guns fire; heavy bolt guns with solid-shot ammunition that exploded on impact. Their aim is poor; however, and only one Guardsman dies, his guts blown out of his back. The las-cannon team, still intact, fires a blast of heat and light towards the foul machine. The heavy-gage lasbeam slams into the Chaos Predator and carves through its warped armor. It finds the ammunition compartment; the heavy tank explodes in a massive fireball that rains down burning shards of metal on the nearby cultists. But they do not break.

The twisted warriors charge; all but the one with the staff. Imperial fire mows them down. Vlenn sees an enemy lasbeam miss his head by a few inches. He has little doubt that the right side of his helmet is partially melted from the intense heat. He fires, killing another raving fanatic. A few of the cultists make it to close quarters with the Imperial line. The one with the staff begins chanting and making odd movements.

Vlenn quickly glances down to make sure his bayonet is secure. He sees two Guardsmen stab a cultist to death. Another cultist impales himself on a Guardsman's bayonet and hacks him to death with a rusty sword while he himself bleeds to death. One of them, a sword in one hand, las-pistol in the other, and madness in his eyes, comes for Vlenn. Instead of aiming his gun he raises his sword, preferring to kill by hand than from afar. Vlenn holds his lasgun like a short staff and swings the butt sideways into the descending sword, knocking the blow aside.

Without hesitation he reverses his swing and slashes his enemy across the throat with his bayonet. The cultist is stunned but still standing. Vlenn swiftly pulls back and thrusts into the man's lower chest and fires, frying his innards in an instant. He withdraws his gun and the corpse falls to the ground. Every cultist in the charge is now dead.

The fanatic with the staff is all alone. He laughs, a shrill, insane laughter devoid of all humanity and explodes in a shower of blood and gore. There is a faint red flash as he vaporizes and in his place a dozen warp beasts now stand. Lesser daemons. The cultist was a low-class psyker, able to break the barrier between real space and the warp and allow these monstrosities through. However, their hold on real space is weak, and can be broken.

The las-cannon team let loose another sweeping blast, incinerating half of the foul beasts and sending their depleted essence back to the warp. The six remaining daemons are a fearsome sight. Four legs, six slashing claws, and a mass of writhing red tissue holding them together; they charge. Vlenn fires at the one coming for him, putting aside all fear. Not because he has complete control over his emotions but rather because there are almost no emotions left to control. Over a decade of war and his own concentration on doing so has erased all but the faintest traces of them. They were a hindrance to killing the Emperor's enemies.

His first lasbeam missed, but his hands remained steady and the next three shots hit. The foul creature cracked and shattered, fragmenting back into the strange realm from where it was summoned a mere five meters from Vlenn's position. Four other daemons have also been dispatched but one has broken through the Guard's line. The man firing at it lost his never, fear impaired his aim. The spawn of Chaos impaled him on its metallic claws, shredding his flesh and bones to ribbons in a matter of seconds, making his screams mercifully brief. As the monster reared up to move again it was blasted out of existence; no less than ten lasguns had been focused on it while it was finishing up its latest work.

With this last enemy gone Vlenn turned back and look around the battlefield. No more targets were in range. The Chaos counter-attack had been annihilated. The few pockets of cultists that were left were soon wiped out by the Imperial Guard columns. The order to advance was given. The las-cannon team packed up their heavy weapon and the Imperial ranks moved on toward their objective.


	4. 4 Outer City

They soon reached the edge of the city surrounding the massive Chaos cannon. Imperial Basilisks, heavy mobile artillery guns, pounded the outer enemy controlled buildings. Chaos guns responded. Vlenn and those near him found what cover they could behind a sloping mound of rocks. An Imperial Leman Russ tank exploded as a Chaos shell hit it. Two Guardsmen still out in the open were blasted to bits by another. However, the Imperial guns were more numerous and more accurate than their warped counter parts; soon the enemy positions had sustained heavy damage and a forward charge was ordered.

One man, filled with fear of the Arch-Enemy's daemonic forces, started to back away. Commissar Seck shot him without hesitation. Death was the punishment for cowards. As the squad advanced a Chaos sniper fired from a pile of ruins, a lasbolt passing through the head of a man three meters to Vlenn's left. A scout walker fired its las-cannon in response, melting the rubble and the sniper therein.

Vlenn and his squad reached their target building. Sergeant Muller led the way, throwing a grenade into the partially destroyed door. After the explosion the Guardsmen rushed in and moved up the stairwell. As they burst into the top room Vlenn saw five dead cultists and an auto-cannon that had been destroyed by an artillery shell. Three cultists still remained on their feet.

He instinctively rolled to the right as one fired at him, narrowly missing being fried. As he regained his feet he saw that the cultist had been killed by another man in his squad. The second cultist was also down. Vlenn brought his lasgun up and fired, killing the third before he could draw a bead on anyone. With the room clear the las-cannon team set up their gun in the hole created by the shell blast and began scanning around for enemies. Vlenn noticed his gun's power pack was nearly drained and quickly switched it for a fresh one.

A column of Chaos troops and troops and corrupted Predator tanks rounded the corner to the street the Imperials had occupied. Las-cannon fire poured into the tanks before they could complete the turn, melting through their armor and disabling them. The heretics returned fire but the Guardsmen had the protection of their newly occupied buildings. Vlenn fired out alongside the rest of his squad. Squads in nearby buildings created a crossfire pattern, decimating the enemy troops. Now that their position was secure, the Imperial artillery began firing into the next district ahead, softening up the defenders for the next advance.

And so it went. Imperial artillery would hit a district, the Guardsmen and tanks would advance and occupy it. Any Chaos counter-attack would be pushed back and it would all repeat again. The Guardsmen suffered casualties, but not as many as one may have expected, thanks to the thoroughness of their bombardments and the unorganized nature of the heretic counter-attacks. Finally, the Guard reached the edge of the inner city. By now, Vlenn had used his two frag grenades clearing out occupied rooms and had expended another power cell.


	5. 5 Inner City

The las-cannon team was still alive and the weapon intact, thank the Emperor. Vlenn knew Commissar Seck was still around, having led a squad to occupy a position a few building over moments ago. Sergeant Muller was dead though, hit by shrapnel when a Chaos rocket had hit the window he was standing next to. All told the group Vlenn was in totaled 22 men plus the cannon. Over the course of the advance squads had lost men, linked up with each other, and amalgamated together. As the Basilisks bombarded the denser inner city sectors Vlenn scanned the streets watching for enemy movement.

Without warning they charged around a corner in the street below. Chaos Space Marines, the elite warriors of Arch-Enemy. They had once been the holy warriors of the Adeptus Astartes. The most powerful of the Emperor's soldiers, each could trace their genetic lineage back to Him. Now they had been corrupted by the Dark Gods that dwelled within the Warp and turned from the Emperor's light. It was heresy most foul, but they were still a force to be reckoned with. Intense training and genetic enhancements, not to mention access to both the Imperium and Chaos' best weapons and armor, made them a far greater threat than mere cultists or lesser daemons.

As they charged forward, an Imperial Leman Russ battle tank came into view from the direction of the Guard's advance. The twin-link heavy bolter guns on each side of the tank opened up into the enemy formation. Four of the twisted warriors fell, their power armor crumpling before the heavy explosive rounds. However, six of their fellows remained. The las-cannon team fired, the super-heated beam melting one of the enemy into a disfigured steaming lump.

The remaining traitors opened fire into Vlenn's building. Most of the Guardsmen took cover away from the windows save for one unfortunate whose chest exploded in a fine red spray as a bolt round detonated on impact. Shrapnel flew by Vlenn, gouging deep scraps in his flak armor. Fortunately, the light armor held, saving him from injury.

There was a loud thunder as the Leman Russ fired its main cannon; three more Chaos Marines exploded into bloody chunks. As Vlenn carefully looked out the window again he saw the two remaining Chaos Marines fire on the tank. One was armed with a blot gun which, though powerful, was not enough to penetrate the tank's heavy front armor. However, the second Marine was loading a shoulder-mounted rocket launcher. This posed a more serious threat.

As the traitor took aim, Vlenn and his squad opened fire on him. The sporadic las-blasts were too weak to seriously damage his power armor, leaving only scratches and scorch marks on the surface. However, they were enough to distract the Chaos warrior and mar his aim. The rocket went wide and missed the Leman Russ. The heavy bolters on the Imperial tank, however, did not miss their mark in turn. A few moments after the last two Chaos Marines were down the Imperial barrage on the district ahead ceased and Vlenn prepared move out. Whereas other men may have felt fear or excitement, in Vlenn there was only a steady resolve. Kill those that would try to kill him; it was as simple as that.


	6. 6 The Judgment of Commissar Seck

The Imperial advance continued. For the most part the Guardsmen only had to deal with cultists and a few lesser daemons, which the Leman-Russ and las-cannon team handled quite nicely. However, about three-quarters of the way into the inner city Vlenn's group came across another squad of Chaos Marines. Eight Berserkers, traitors who had sworn allegiance to the Chaos God Khorne. Fed by the psychic power created by the violence and hatred in the physical universe, Khorne blessed his followers with incredible strength and bloodlust, making their hand-to-hand combat overwhelming.

The two groups met in the middle of a cratered and rubble-strewn street. The Leman Russ fired its primary and secondary guns into the charging Berserkers, killing four of them. Vlenn and the rest of the infantry fired desperately at the remaining heretic warriors as the las-cannon team struggled to set up their equipment. The combined las-blasts of the Guardsmen managed to eat through the armor of one Chaos Marine and burn through his innards; however, the other three were so filled with bloodlust that their companion's death didn't even cross their minds.

As they charged, the Khorne Berserkers fired their bolt pistols into the Guardsmen line. Three men to Vlenn's right and one to his left dropped. One of the Chaos Marines reached the las-cannon team, slaughtering them with his massive battle ax and destroying the cannon. The other two charged the tank and began hacking the side turrets from the vehicle's frame. The Imperials focused their lasfire on the Berserker who had taken out the cannon; the sheer volume of their shots were finally able to burn through his armor and fry him.

By now the two remaining Berserkers had finished cutting off the Leman Russ' side guns and turned to charge the infantry squads. With no heavy guns to support them the Imperial Guardsmen were face to face with annihilation. There was no way they could match the towering Chaos Marines in close combat. Vlenn raised his lasgun from his position near the middle of the group and began to fire on instinct, knowing it was hopeless. His shots, like everyone else's, were insufficient to penetrate the Berserkers' power armor in time.

The elite Chaos warriors crashed into the Guardsmen. Vlenn kept firing even as he saw men get hacked to pieces. Limbs, blood, guts, and chunks of flesh flew in every direction as the massive Khorne fanatics carved into man after man. They were ten meters away from Vlenn.

Now eight.

Now five.

Closer and closer until…

Suddenly, there was a loud thundering sound and a voice.

"Fire! Blast the traitors until they are no more!"

One of the Berserkers shuddered and fell forward on the ground, a large bloody hole in his back. The second turned only to meet a similar fate, the only difference was that he died on his back rather than his face. Vlenn turned toward the direction of the shout.

It was Commissar Seck leading a group of Guardsmen. Amongst them was an auto-cannon team who had set up their weapon and used its firepower to bring down the last two Berserkers. While auto-cannons couldn't melt through heavy vehicle armor like las-cannons could, they had a quicker rate of fire and still packed plenty of punch with their heavy solid shots. They were ideal for taking out light vehicles and heavy infantry.

Commissar Seck and his men approached the remaining half of the group and the damaged Leman-Russ tank. The Commissar looked at Vlenn.

"Trooper, is that tank still mobile?" he asked in a stern voice, his eyes in a piercing glare.

"Yes, sir," Vlenn replied. "The side guns are gone but the main cannon is still operational."

Commissar Seck nodded tersely. "Good. You men are now under my direct command. Come, we must continue the Emperor's glorious advance into these heretic positions!"

Suddenly, faster than anyone could react, a las-beam from the fourth story of a shattered building flew by the Commissar's head, barely missing him.

"Bastard sniper," he grumbled as he began firing in the direction the shot had come. "Fire that damn cannon!"

The Leman Russ tank took aim and fired, blasting the entire floor the sniper had been hiding in, crushing him under tons of rockcrete before he could fire again. Nearby, one of the men that had been attacked by the Berserkers moaned.

"Hey!" a Guardsman said, looking over, "He's still alive!"

But not for long. He had a deep gash running all the way across his abdomen and was losing blood fast. There was no way anyone could patch him up in time. Seck moved over to him and crouched down next to his head.

"Commissar, sir, is that you? I… I can't move, sir…" the dying Guardsman half-whispered as shock began to set in.

"It's me, trooper," Seck replied. "You've been hit."

The trooper was young, couldn't have been more than eighteen, probably a recent replacement sent to the regiment before the invasion. Maybe never even seen action before today. He weakly grabbed hold of the grizzled, hard-faced Commissar's arm.

"I'm not gonna make it, am I?" he asked, his voice starting to waver. "I… I tried…"

"You did well, son," Seck said. "The Emperor is proud of you." The Commissar reached for his las-pistol. "Do you desire the Emperor's Peace?"

The wounded Guardsman hesitated, then closed his eyes and nodded. Vlenn glanced at Seck's face and, if he hadn't known better, could have sworn he saw something like a flicker of compassion.

"The Emperor's Paradise awaits you, Guardsman," Seck told the young man.

A single shot range out and the trooper suffered no more.

The Commissar stood up, any trace of softness that might have been on his scarred face were certainly gone now.

"All right men, lets move out," Seck ordered, moving up the street.

One man, his eyes beginning to widen, shook his head and took a few steps backwards. Vlenn could see the terror written on his face.

"Trooper, where do you think you are going?" Seck asked, turning his head towards the man.

"I'm… I'm sorry, sir, but I'm not going out like that," the man said, his voice shaking as he glanced down at the dead young trooper. "I'm leaving this place, getting the hell out!" His voice rose as hysteria began to grip him. "And if you try to stop me, I'll fry you good!" He was nearly screaming now, shakily aiming his lasgun at the Commissar.

Seck moved faster than any man could see. The panicked man's gun was no longer pointed at the Commissar. It was on the ground, next to his now-lifeless body; a smoking hole going clean through his skull.

Commissar Seck looked at the rest of the men under his command. "The Emperor's Paradise does _not_ await that coward as it did that young hero!" he roared. "Only fire and damnation await those who flee from the stern responsibility placed upon them by the Immortal God-Emperor of Mankind! Now move forward!"

Vlenn and the others fell in step with the Commissar and advanced. To Vlenn's mind, it wasn't Seck's gun that kept him going. It was the fact that victory was the only chance of survival in this place. There was simply no where to retreat to; Chaos infested every part of this place. To run would be suicide, there was no where to hide from the horrors that roamed this city. You could only fight them and pray that the next man who died wouldn't be you.

Vlenn allowed himself a brief moment of reflection as he changed his nearly depleted power cell. According to the mission briefing, there were four major Chaos cults. Those that followed Khorne emphasized hatred and violence. Followers of Nurgle were diseased and decayed. The cults of Slaanesh were lustful and decadent, often using combat drugs to enhance their abilities. And the followers of Tzeentch were dedicated to change, deceit, and sorcery. Each faction had its own armies here on this planet.

However, they did not get along.

Each struggled for power against the others even as they made war on the Imperium. Their attacks and defenses during this long-running battle were not nearly as organized and coordinated as they could have been. Having an enemy that was divided was always an advantage; indeed, the Orks Vlenn had fought before had been much the same way. So great was their lust for battle that they'd fight one another just as eagerly as they'd battle Guardsmen.

Personally, Vlenn was just content they had almost reached their primary objective. His light flak armor was so beaten and scarred that it was almost useless and he only had two charged power cells remaining; his frag grenades were long since used during the assault on the outer city. Oh, and his bayonet was still attached of course, for all the good it would do against a few more Khorne Berserkers.


	7. 7 Primary Objective

Fortunately it wasn't much longer before the Guardsmen, with Commissar Seck leading from the front, reached their destination. As the Leman Russ tank slowed to a stop and the auto-cannon team set up, Vlenn looked ahead to their primary target. The reinforced bunkers containing the power generators that ran the massive planet-to-ship cannon.

The enormous cannon was at the heart of the city; larger than any building and reaching over a mile into the sky. The generator bunkers encircled it, feeding its massive hunger for energy. Hoard of Chaos troops were guarding them. The buildings of the inner city stopped well before the perimeter of the cannon, leaving a wide, flat, open area between the current Guard positions and the final Chaos stronghold. As Vlenn looked around he saw increasing number of Imperials reach the end of the inner city, each unit stopping on the edge of the open tract of land, surrounding the ship-killer monstrosity.

Infantry, las and auto-cannons, tanks, and long range artillery pieces moved into position. Several units set up positions in buildings to gain any height and cover they could. Others, like Vlenn's, stayed outside to directly defend the Basilisk artillery guns. The final stage was set; the Chaos armies would have no choice but to charge the Imperial lines to stop the artillery from decimating their power supply. It was just a question of time until one side or the other fired the opening shots.

An eternity passed.

Suddenly, the order must have come through. Every Basilisk gun fired as one; the sky itself seemed to shatter as the shells began to slam into the enemy positions. Still, it was not enough. Fierce as it was, it would take more than just a single barrage to blast through the heretics' defensive structures. It was up to the rest of the Imperial Guard to safeguard the artillery until their job was done.

Even before the first volley had landed the forces of Chaos had begun their charge. Cultists led the way, unknowingly acting as a shield for the Chaos Space Marines and Daemons behind them.

The Guardsmen opened up with everything they had. Tanks targeted vehicles and Chaos Marines, las-cannons melted through heavy armor, auto-cannons blasted through daemon warp-flesh, and Imperial lasguns felled cultists by the hundreds. Vlenn fired ceaselessly along with the men around him, trying to focus on bringing down cultists so the heavier guns could hit the Marines behind them.

The Guard suffered casualties from Chaos fire but held firm; their well-ordered fire tore through the Arch-Enemy's charge. Thousands were left dead as they ran into the withering fire. Vlenn saw a Guardsman out of the corner of his eye load a missile launcher and decimate a light Chaos tank with a well-aimed shot.

Vlenn began to notice something odd about the Chaos charge. Instead of focusing a large number of troops at once point in the Imperial lines and trying to break through the heretic commanders were sending their troops out in every direction. Also, the majority of the more powerful Chaos warriors were advancing slower then they had during previous encounters. This massive forward charge, as crazy as it sounded, seemed to be somehow defensive in nature.

Then Vlenn saw them. Large Chaos Space Marines covered in highly decorative armor and intricate sigils. Each of them carried twisted, heavily decorated staffs. Tzeentch Sorcerers; each surrounded by a dense group of insane fanatics acting as human shields. One by one the raised their arms and directed a blast of warp energy at themselves, exploding in a mass of blood and gore; save for the last one. The Dark Gods, pleased at the sacrifice, gave the final Sorcerer a rare gift. Red, pulsing energy split through him as reality began to twist in on itself. The Sorcerer bent and moved in impossible directions, some veering of into infinity itself, as he finally tore in half as the fabric of reality itself ripped.

And what stepped through the massive rip before it faded was a towering horror.

A Greater Daemon of Tzeentch now turned to face the Imperial Guard. It was massive, a hellish beast at least five stories tall. Four powerful arms rippled from its chest; its face breaking into a fanged smile as its multitude of eyes focused on its prey. A massive set of wings spread from its back. Its hoofed feet braced as it prepared to launch its attack.

A few Imperial tanks had time to fire on the monstrosity, but their shells had no effect; either deflected by the warp current flowing around the beast or absorbed by its sheer bulk. The Greater Daemon opened it maw and unleashed an enormous wave of pure warp energy. The wave impacted the Imperial Guard lines two kilometers down from Vlenn's position. Guardsmen, tanks, artillery pieces, and Chaos warriors alike were enveloped by that terrible light; all being completely obliterated with barely any time to scream.

Every Guard weapon on the line opened up on the Daemon with everything it had. The air around the warp manifest filled with explosions as artillery, tanks, cannons, and even lasguns fired on the monstrosity. Most of the ordinance was absorbed by the warp energies surrounding the beast and some missed all together as it quickly moved to another position on the battlefield. However, some of the Guard fire managed to score a few solid hits on the Greater Daemon's form. It wasn't enough to banish the beast, but Vlenn could see red cracks beginning to appear on its form as he continued to fire at the remaining Chaos forces.

The Greater Daemon let loose another blast of warp energy; it was closer to Vlenn's position this time. He was far enough away to be safe form the main blast but a few stray bolts of warp energy crashed into the ground nearby. Vlenn dove to the ground and pressed himself flat, and not a moment too soon as a blot sizzled through the air above him where his head had been only split second before. Another Guardsman was not so lucky as he was struck and burned to cinders in a fraction of a second. After the wave had passed Vlenn got back up and resumed firing at the enemy.

Despite the massive casualties inflicted by the Daemon, the Imperial barrage refused to relent. The shear amount of firepower pouring into the creature was beginning to take its toll. The warp field around it had finally been dissipated, and without it, the monster's form was vulnerable. Large, deep craters and fissures had been gouged into its twisted body. An artillery shell blasted into a hole that had already been smashed into the Daemon's form and caused it to stumble backwards and sink to one knee. Vlenn could see the horror trying to gather its strength for another attack, but it couldn't seem to completely focus, as if its cohesion had dropped too low.

As the barrage continued the Greater Daemon's body fractured more and more; its roars and bellows becoming shorter and weaker as it clutched its wounds. Finally, in one massive flash the Daemon exploded into nothingness; its shattered essence fragmenting and skittering as it folded through real space and returned to the warp that had spawned it.

The massive Daemon was gone, and by now nearly all of the Chaos armies had been slaughtered. Caught between Imperial fire and the Daemon, which cared nothing for its pawns if they were in its line of fire, the remaining heretics had no where to take cover. The few pockets of them that remained where quickly wiped out by Imperial shells and lasblasts. With the last bit of resistance gone, the battlefield was almost eerily quiet. Twisted blackened husks of burned-out vehicles and mangled bodies, Imperial and heretic alike, dotted the landscape, while cries for medics and the groans of the wounded echoed across the ruins.


	8. 8 Epilogue

Vlenn ejected his lasgun's near-empty power cell and loaded his last charged one, hearing the solid click as it set into place. Now that the last Chaos troops where gone, Imperial demolition teams moved in to blow up the massive plants that supplied power to the ship-killer cannon. From what he had chanced to overhear on a nearby vox set, it seemed to Vlenn that the other Guard armies had also been able to reach and destroy their targets.

With the cannons disabled, the Imperial Guard armies formed up and, encountering almost no resistance, moved back outside the city to the incoming landers that were to take them offworld and back to the troop ship in orbit. Their work here was completed, praise be to the Emperor. With the planet now defenseless, a small Imperial fleet could now move in and deliver their payloads. While the Navy fleet was too small to have made it past the planet's ship-killer cannons, it had more enough munitions to ensure that every manufacturing facility on the planet was wiped out.

Three weeks later Vlenn's regiment found itself stationed on the Imperial world of Grevart III. They were all given a month of down-time as the regiment was re-supplied; Sector Command had decreed that Grevart's planetary tithe of newly raised Imperial Guardsmen were to be joined with Vlenn's regiment so they could learn from the veterans' experience. New recruits, replacement machines, more supplies, etc… would bring the regiment back up to full strength.

Meanwhile, Vlenn and the other veterans that had made it through the battle had the month off active duty to rest and recuperate before shipping off to the next conflict zone. While on stand down, Vlenn one day found himself walking through a local park in the residential section of the city he was stationed in. Though not as large as some of the great hives he had seen, the city still had a goodly number of people in it. It wasn't ostentatiously decorated, but was well-ordered and relatively clean. Simple, true, but far more pleasant than the last planet he had been on.

The casualties had been high. All told, fully three-quarters of the Imperial forces dispatched to the planet had been killed or wounded during the fighting. But they had succeeded, the planet had been cleansed. The munitions from the Navy vessels had reduced the entire crust of the world to molten rock. Chaos forces elsewhere in the region, no longer receiving adequate supplies, had eventually fallen apart in the face of the Emperor's armies.

As for Vlenn himself, he considered himself fortunate. He had gotten through the battle with no more than a few scrapes and bruises. He had killed the Emperor's enemies and once again proven his worth. As a result of their stalwart fighting, the company commander had requisitioned better equipment for all those who had made it through the last mission; they had shown they were worth the extra investment.

Heavier flak armor instead of the lighter standard-issue gear, extra fragmentation grenades, five hot-shot power packs for his lasgun, a laspistol, and a large, heavy combat knife suited Vlenn just fine. It was nice to know that he had some other close combat weapons to rely on; it was a standard joke in the Guard that bayonets were more useful as toothpicks than weapons.

Not to mention a month's rest. Vlenn didn't know where the next campaign would take him; the Emperor's wars never ended. But wherever he went, whatever the circumstances, he would fight mankind's enemies with resolve. Hard and focused, he would face his enemies and strive to kill them before they killed him. All other distractions must be put aside or his immediate death would be all but assured.

Sometimes, as he looked at the civilians in the park going about their daily lives, he wondered if there was anything else to life. He knew there was, he could remember some of it from his early years. What is was like to... be connected. To be with other people, to see them as more than just shapes that would fire on the enemy instead of you.

To be included in humanity; instead of standing outside of it.

But it was only by being outside of humanity that one could defend it. In order to keep the heretic and the alien from humanity, the soldier has to stand outside as well. An Imperial Guardsman could only be concerned with survival; nothing else. To forsake this way of life would be to doom untold billions.

Forget the warmth of humanity's fellowship, for in the dark future of mankind there is only war.


End file.
